JAMMU: Alleging unholy nexus between the un-authorised operators of stone crushers and government agencies in the State, Harsh Dev Singh JKNPP Chairman and former Minister, on Monday stated that such illegal units had caused huge environmental and ecological degradation besides serious hazards to human health.
He said that there were hundreds of stone crushes operating in the State without fulfilling the pre-requisites laid down by the GoI, Ministry of Environment and Ministry of Mines in pursuance of the Supreme Court directions.
He said that even the J and K High Court in its order in July 2015 in writ petition titled Mohd Maqbool Lone vs State of J and K had called upon the State Government to ensure strict monitoring of the stone crushers and Hot/wet mix plants.
He regretted that State Pollution Control Board (SPCB) which was the nodal agency for regulation of stone crushers had abdicated its responsibility due to vested interests thus allowing hundreds of such units to operate with impunity.
Harsh further pointed out that while the SPCB had issued notices to hundreds of health institutes of Jammu Division to ensure compliance with the provisions of the Water Act, Air Act, and Bio-Medical Waste Management Rules, the un-authorised stone crushers were given an open field by the SPCB without any check whatsoever.
He said that it was astonishing, rather intriguing to note that 507 Health Centres of Jammu Division were served two weeks notices by SPCB to apply for consent to operate under Water/Air Act and to train their staff about control of pollution and bio-medical waste management rules to the exclusion all other pollution creating units including Hot/wet mix plants and stone crushers.
Lambasting the SPCB for allowing hundreds of stone crushers to operate in violation of guidelines and directives of Supreme Court and J and K High Court, Harsh pointed out that several units had been installed in prohibited areas and non specified locations by powerful mafia in league with government functionaries.
He said that several illegal stone crushers were being allowed to run on political considerations as they were owned by politicians including ruling party leaders while others were running in collusion with corrupt officers and vested interests in the Department.
Seeking immediate action against the illegal stone crushers, Singh regretted that apart from SPCB, the other concerned Departments including Geology and Mining, Forests, I and FC and Districts administration concerned had also failed to book the delinquents due to political clout enjoyed by them and money power wielded by them.
He said that stone crushers installed on river beds, on kah- charai/state lands or in the vicinity of schools, habitations, forests, hospitals etc in violation of rules were required to be immediately disbanded with action under law against the violators. He urged upon the Chief Minster and state vigilance organisation to intervene so as to rescue the people from health hazards caused by such illegal units and to further stop the illegal extraction of minerals including stones, Bajri, sand and boulders by such powerful mafia in blatant circumvention of prescribed norms.